Improvement



PATENT FFICE.

PEARL MARTIN, OF MEDFORD,-MASSACHUSETTS. H.

, IMPROVEMENT lN GUIDES AND BLOTTERS FOR WRITING-BOOKS.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 131,106, dated September 3, 1872.

To all whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, PEARL MARTIN, of Medford, in the county of Middlesex and State of Massachusetts, have invented a new and useful Guide andv Blotter for \Vriting-Books, in order to enable a person to more readily acquire the art of penmanship than by the method heretofore adopted and I do hereby declare the same to be fully described in the following specification, and ,illustrated in the accompanying drawing. I 1

It is well known that in teaching the art of penmanship, as now practiced in our schools, books are employed having the elements, letters, or words which the pupil is to imitate printed on the top line of each page. It is also well known to those who have made the matter a subject of examination that the first lines of the page of a book written by the pupil are almost without exception the bestexecuted ones of any written by him-on the page. This arises from the natural tendency of the pupil to take the line last written by him as his guide, instead of the original copy. In this way, instead of copying the beauty and artistic finish of the original, he

only transcribes his own imperfections. To remedy this evil, and cause the pupil to have only the perfect original before him for his imitation and guide, is the object of my invention, which consists of an appendage to be affixed to a writing-book composed of a flat supporting-frame or bar, provided with means of attaching it to a book, and having a series of flaps or arms so arranged as to consecutively fold over and cover the lines as they may be written, whereby not only is the undried ink absorbed and the written lines hidden from view, but the original alone kept before the eye of the pupil.

To enable others to make and use my invention, I will now proceed to describe the .manner in which the same is or may be carried into effect, by reference to the accompanying drawing, in which- Figure 1 denotes an edge view, and Fig. 2 a top view, of my invention. Fig. 3 is a view of the same as affixed to a writing-book, one line supposed to have been written and the upper flap turned over upon it.

In the said drawing, A denotes a flat sup porting bar or plate, to which the foldingiiaps a a, 850., are affixed. These foldingfiaps, which are of a width equal or about equal to the distance between the lines of the page to be written on, are cut or died from a plate formed of two sheets of blottingcard, having a layer of cloth disposed between them, the whole being pasted or-otherwise firmly secured together. The cloth at one edge of the compound plate thus formed is left projecting of a sufficient length to extend between the two blotting-cards which form the outer surfacesof the bar A, and be firmly secured thereto by pasting or other-- wise, the cloth thus intervening between the bar A, and the flaps serving as hinges on which the latter may be freely turned, as circumstances may require. To each end of the bar A two metallic clamps, b b or c c, are affixed, the same being for the purpose of enabling the device to be applied to either page of the book, as may be desirable.

Having described the construction of my invention, its application and use are as follows: Having been constructed of the desired shape to adapt it to a series of books, (which are generally of a uniform size,) the bar A is to be clamped to the leaf or cover of the book which is opposite to the page to be written upon, and all the flaps turned down upon such opposite page. The pupil or person having written his upper line next, turns over the top flap upon the same, which not only performs the function of absorbing the undried ink, but covers the written line from view. The pupil next writes his second line and folds over the second flap, and thus repeats the operation until the entire page is finished.

I would remark that I do not limit my invention to the employment of two sheets of blotting-card and an intervening layer of cloth in forming the bar A and the series of flaps, as the same may be made of a single blotting-card, and the flaps and bar connected by other well-known means. So, also, the upper one of the flaps may, if desirable, be provided at its outer end with a metallic clamp or device for securing it in position upon the leaf to be written on.

What I claim as my invention is 1. The above-described device as an article a writing or copy book, substantially in manof manufacture, consisting of the bar A, proner and for the purpose or objects as stated. vided with the series of hinged arms or flaps PEARL MARTIN.

a a, 850., and clamps b b and c a, formed and arranged substantially as and for the'purpose Witnesses: specified. F. P. HALE,

2. The combination of the said device with F. O. HALE. 

